Advances in information processing has resulted in increasing demands for processing power. Examples include faster and more capable processors, faster graphics or video hardware, and faster and larger memory.
Because of a variety of factors, faster memory tends to cost more. Because of the relatively large cost of fast memory, system memory is typically divided into several types of memory. One type of memory constitutes the main memory of a system. The main memory, as the name suggests, provides a storage subsystem for storing information, such as data, instructions, etc., and reading the stored contents of the memory. Another type of memory is cache memory. Cache memory is often faster than main memory. As noted above, however, faster memory tends to cost more. As a result, cache memory, although faster, is provided in smaller amounts than main memory.
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